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Tex. Water Code § 7.257

This is the official text of Tex. Water Code § 7.257, part of Texas’s Water Code — governs water rights and water resource management.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

§ 7.257. DEFENSE TO NUISANCE OR TRESPASS.

Official statutory text

(a) A person, as defined by Section 382.003, Health and Safety Code, who is subject to an administrative, civil, or criminal action brought under this chapter for nuisance or trespass arising from greenhouse gas emissions has an affirmative defense to that action if the person's actions that resulted in the alleged nuisance or trespass were authorized by a rule, permit, order, license, certificate, registration, approval, or other form of authorization issued by the commission or the federal government or an agency of the federal government and:

(1) the person was in substantial compliance with that rule, permit, order, license, certificate, registration, approval, or other authorization while the alleged nuisance or trespass was occurring; or

(2) the commission or the federal government or an agency of the federal government exercised enforcement discretion in connection with the actions that resulted in the alleged nuisance or trespass.

(b) This section does not apply to nuisance actions solely based on a noxious odor.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.